"Sir, in regard to --"
"Who're you talkin' to?"
It was just a split second -- a collective intake of breath -- but reporters genuflecting before George Bush last April at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, got the message. They got it, as Bush likes to say -- loud and clear. From that point on, it was...
"Mr. President --"
Watching the media herd jostle to gain the attention of the ill-natured and juvenile "Mr. President," it was difficult to discern which was more pathetic -- an unprofessional Bush delighting in forcing a reporter to grovel for access to his wondrous self, or a professional journalist allowing himself to be called "Stretch" while eagerly groveling.
[...]
Given his reality-challenged "vision" of ridding the entire world of evil and riding shotgun for God by personally delivering the gift of freedom to the few who remain, one has only to look at the clueless, "look ma -- no hands" Bush to suspect that making this guy look presidential -- or even remotely sane -- can be a chore. It's work. Hard work. Really hard worky work...
[...]
The silence of the media about the demands their president makes on other nations is deafening. The boorish audacity of first demanding to address the European Parliament in the lead-up to the Iraqi invasion and then refusing to do so unless they promised him a standing ovation and guaranteed there would be no protests or heckling was completely ignored by the US media, as was his recent opting out of addressing the Canadian Parliament for the same reasons.
[...]
The US media blacks out the hundreds, thousands -- tens of thousands -- of enraged world citizens who turn out en masse, armed with insulting placards, to protest his setting foot on their soil.
[...]
Why do they hate him? Bush boasts it's because of his freedom -- and he's right. Because of his freedom to destroy homes, cities, entire nations -- his freedom to bring death and destruction to terrified civilians -- and his freedom to seize and occupy whomever and whatever he wants -- whenever he wants.
They hate him because of the mangled wreckage he leaves in his wake, such as demanding that homes and businesses along a route he was to travel in Nigeria last year be bulldozed so that his vision would not be impaired by the plight of the poor. They hate him because, while Nigerian residents watched in despair as all they owned was destroyed, he spent 15 minutes in Uganda staring vacantly at children infected with AIDS, promising billions of US dollars that, just hours before, his Republican minions in Congress had voted to seriously curtail..
Flashback to that African visit:
"The local population was chased out of their houses from 5 to 12 AM. They were forced by the American security to leave their houses and leave everything open, including their wardrobes to be searched by special dogs brought from the US. The ferry that links the island to Dakar was stopped and offices and businesses closed for the day.
"According to an economist who was interviewed by a private radio, Senegal which is a very poor country, has lost huge amount of money in this visit, because workers have been prevented from walking out of their homes.
"In addition to us being prevented to go out, other humiliating things happened also. Not only Bush brought did not want to be with Senegalese but he did not want to use our things. He brought his own armchairs, and of course his own cars, and meals and drinks. He came with his own journalists and ours were forbidden inside the airport and in place he was visiting.
Our president was not allowed to make a speech. Only Bush spoke when he was in Goree.
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